It sure beats painting trim.

 In view of the results, I thought it might be interesting to compare yesterday's fishing with today's.

Thursday, I fished a pool on the Big East, it had fish rising to ants and/or pseudos. I rose seven fish, four refused my fly, three ate and I landed one.  Next stop was a pool on the big river where I saw two risers, hooked and landed them both. Third and last stop was another pool on the BR, walked a long way without seeing a fish until I found some risers in a glide above a riff.  Was refused by one, hooked three and landed them all. On the way back to the car I saw another riser that I hooked and landed.  During the time I spent fishing I rose 14 fish, was refused by 5, hooked 9 and landed 7.  It was as nice a day of fishing as you could ask for.

Friday, I started at an often fished pool on the BK, where there were fresh iso husks on the rocks and the fish were in the riff looking for and feeding on isos.  They would not even look at the iso I was fishing.  Made multiple fly changes and ended up with many ignores, 2 refusals, three fish hooked one landed. Moved to a pool farther upstream on the BK where I saw no iso husks and but one splashy rise. Was refused by the splashy riser and another fish.  Tried a good iso pool on the BE and found no risers, rose one fish that ate an iso emerger and promptly came unstuck.  Moved to another pool on the BE that had early shade. Found no risers but rose three fish blind casting.  Broke one off  that ate just as I was picking up the fly, the other two refused my offerings. Last stop was on the BR where I saw half a dozen "one and done" risers. Was refused by two fish and had three eat. I landed but one.  During the time I spent fishing I rose 16 fish, was refused by 8, hooked 8 and landed but 2.  It was an ass kicking if ever there was one.

What was the difference? Little things. There were very few bugs either day but on Thursday there were enough so that most of the fish I hooked were rising.  Knew where to cast, was ready for the take and was careful setting the hook.  Friday there were even fewer bugs and what risers there were, seldom  rose a second time.  Most of the fish were hooked on "blind" casts where the element of surprise seldom works in your favor. One or more of the "takes" may possibly have been the result of hooking when a fish is refusing the fly and having the point of the hook briefly dig into the side of the fish as it swims past the fly.  All I can say is none of the hookups yielded a scale on the point of the hook.

If you are a regular reader you know I do a lot of blind casting.  It's a learned skill the success of which improves as you learn to cast the fly to places where fish are lying.  You also need to perfect your control of slack line, attentively watch your fly and be ready to set the hook should a fish decide your fly looks good enough to eat. If I had spent today casting only to rising fish I would have only hooked two and landed one.  On the other hand my fish landing skills need some work.